South Frontenac Council - Feb. 8/11

Wilma Kenny | Feb 10, 2011

Cataraqui Regional conservation Authority

General Manager Steve Knechtel spoke to Council about the Cataraqui Region Conservaion Authorities’ (CRCA) programs and budgets. Forty percent of the agency’s an-nual budget is derived from an annual levy collected from the townships in the region.

This year, South Frontenac’s levy of $102,249 is an in-crease of $4,404 over 2010. Knechtel said this year’s goals included maintaining existing staff, programming and ser-vices, upgrading technology in order to improve efficiency and communication, and continuing necessary maintenance of buildings and infrastructure. He noted that while the prov-ince had originally covered 50% of the CRCA’a costs, there has been no provincial increase since 1997, with the result that now only 40% was covered by the province. The re-maining shortfall is met through grants, other partnerships, and user fees.

“Where will it end?” asked Councillor Robinson, noting that the township’s levy goes up every year. Councillor Vandewal asked about public use of the CRCA facilities: Knechtel re-plied that more and more people were using the facilities ev-ery year, including the Cataraqui trail. Vandewal said he felt the money was well spent if taxpayers were benefiting. Coun-cillor Del Stowe agreed that maintenance of facilities was es-sential, and Councillor Alan McPhail said he felt the CRCA has demonstrated careful management of their funding.

Road Allowance closure

Jim and Helen Hill of Bedford district had asked that a portion of an unopened road allowance be closed and added to their property. Their house now sits on part of the road al-lowance, which had not shown on their 1965 survey. A report from Anne Levac, planning assistant, indicated that it would be reasonable to close a 33 foot strip of the allowance: if Council agreed, it would be up to them to establish a reason-able price for the land. Although there was no formal vote, the majority of Council agreed that, given the circumstanc-es, it would be fair to charge the Hills $1,000 plus costs, as long as this solution was compatible with previous decisions in similar situations of historical survey errors.

Campbell subdivision

In an ongoing discussion involving the development of a small subdivision adjoining a working farm in Storrington district, landowner Jeff Peters and developer Barry Camp-bell indicated that, following discussions with the township planner, they felt they had arrived at a mutually agreeable compromise regarding a piece of land which fell between the two properties. It would be sold to Peters for an undis-closed amount, and would provide an undeveloped buffer between the subdivision housing and the barn, which will be a source of noise and odour. Planner Lindsay Mills said that this project has waited five years for a concrete plan from the developer: once one is received, the township can make a decision.